Museu do homem do nordeste

Museu do homem do nordeste (“Museum of the Northeast Man”) is an artist publication by Brazilian artist Jonathas de Andrade. Part of his solo show at Kunsthalle Lissabon, titled “Posters for the museum of the northeast man”, yet autonomous from it, the book refers to “Museu do Homem do Nordeste,” an ethnographic museum created in Andrade's hometown of Recife in the late ’70s by sociologist and writer Gilberto Freyre. By approaching working-class men on the streets of Recife or placing ads in the local newspapers seeking men to be photographed for the posters of the museum, Jonathas de Andrade has established an ambivalent relation with both the men and the identity they were asked to portray, through the anthropophagous and eroticized gaze of the camera lens. The posters depicting men in different daily activities try to explore, question and reassess the issues behind the construction of a regional identity, that of the Northeastern Brazilian, and its present-day meaning/relevance.

Co-published with Kunsthalle Lissabon and Tijuana.